A report from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University examines the state of data-driven journalism. It looks at the impediments to growth (availability of skilled talent, newsroom culture and data literacy, among others) and identifies several recommendations to make records more transparent and accessible and to make newsrooms better adopt them in their journalism.***A U.S. report indicates online television viewing has grown by 246 per cent in the last year. The New York Times reports Adobe report suggests TV Everywhere (meaning authenticated viewing of channels you subscribe to and watch online) is approaching mainstream use, largely because of sports programming. Mobile video viewing grew 57 per cent and online video viewing overall was up 43 per cent in the year (35 billion viewings). As other evidence of transformation in consumption, The Guardian reports that film streaming and downloads will overtake the movie box office revenue by 2017. ***The Hollywood Reporter says correspondent Lara Logan will be back on CBS and 60 Minutes in the fall. Logan has been on a leave since her segment on the attack on the Libyan U.S. compound in Benghazi was discredited for using a source who fabricated his supposed eyewitness account.

Liliana Bounegru, writing for the Harvard Business Review, argues that data journalists need to expand their source material from conventional, privileged authorities to not "exacerbate the tendency to amplify issues already considered a priority." In other words, journalists need to look to unconventional sources like social media and curated journalism to lend voice to neglected groups and people.***The Federal Communications Commission chair, Tom Wheeler, has been battling perceptions of his position on net neutrality for several days now. Critics believe he's taking the FCC down the road of different-speed access. He appeared Tuesday before a congressional subcommittee and, after a few minutes of scolding, was able to put forward his view that the commission is not attempting to create two Internets or unequal access. The process under way will involve a debate that, ultimately, aims to serve the consumer, he says.***The imposition of martial law in Thailand has led to the shuttering of 14 TV and 3,000 radio stations, along with a debate-controlling demand that media not interview anyone not in authority about the political upheaval. As The New York Times reports, easier said than done.

Some media stories of note for Friday, May 2, 2014:Felix Salmon, the former Reuters media blogger now setting up shop at Fusion, makes a splash with his initial entrée by decrying the journalist's focus on scoops. Doesn't matter, he argues, no one but the journos care. With the exception of market-moving newswires, it's an issue the craft should give up.***John McDermott, writing for Digiday, argues that newspapers are lagging in the mobile race. While Americans are now spending more time with their mobile devices than their desktop ones, newspapers have not captured the proportionate space in the new model. If anything, he suggests they are falling further behind.***U.K. publishers appear ready to put up on their bids to be data players. The Guardian reports the Association of Online Publishers' annual survey indicates they intend to hire into the field of data analysis in the year ahead. Nearly 90 per cent of those surveyed will invest in the field and 58 per cent will hire analysts.

A major study released Monday tells much about how Americans consume news. They are mix-and-match consumers, with various platforms excelling at various forms of content, and they are much wider in their consumption than conventionally thought. The Media Insight Report found three-quarters of Americans, including 60 per cent of those under the age of 30, consume news daily but do not depend in the same way on front pages and newscasts.***FiveThirtyEight, the Nate Silver/New York Times blog that catapulted to fame during the 2012 U.S. election campaign, resurfaced Monday under a new company (ESPN) and with Silver leading a much larger team. His reintroduction featured a lengthy manifesto about data and journalism, a fairly chiding message to the craft about its anecdotal dependence, and a hint about the direction he wants his group to take --- into "nerdier" territory that is prepared to sacrifice speed for accuracy but made data journalism sustainable.***Two weeks ago Newsweek resurfaced in print with what it argued was an exclusive profile of the founder of bitcoin. Skeptics abounded, and Monday the subject of the story, Dorian S. Nakamoto, announced he had hired a lawyer to clear his name. He says he has never been involved in bitcoin, has been battling health issues, and will not comment further. Newsweek has stood behind its story.

These have been rough days for journalists in Kiev, where protests in the streets met with police force and injured reporters and photographers. Olga Rudenko, writing for the Kyiv Post, chronicles the clashes over the weekend in which at least 40 journalists were hurt. The Ukraine government has promised an investigation.

Bloomberg News has been in the news recently for concerns about how it is handling its presence in China. Today it seems the authorities are much more displeased than pleased, excluding Bloomberg's British political correspondent Robert Hutton from a news conference with the Chinese premier and the British prime minister. BuzzFeed reports on the snub.

When you receive a trove of documents, should you share them? Last week PandoDaily's Mark Ames raised questions about the fairness of former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald bringing the stash of Edward Snowden revelations to the new Pierre Omidyar-financed news operation. He even questioned whether Greenwald will have agency to publish all he wishes. Not surprisingly, Greenwald leapt to his defence and has crafted a lengthy FAQ on this matter. It is not a pretty dispute.

Journalism.co.uk looks at detective.io, a new database project underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help journalists look at relationships and connections in datasets. The project lets users input data and maps connections to produce a searchable database.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former communications director, spoke in his role as a visiting professor at Cambridge about the media and politics. It is a meandering speech, but its central points appear to be: the audience is savvy enough to drive media change, the regulation debate in England is a mess, politicians would do better to think strategically more than tactically, and the threat to journalism comes from within. He argues that media decline owes not to technology but to a lack of accountability, abuse of power, and rising public awareness of journalism's methods.

Alexander Howard, writing for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, examines some of the recent ethical pitfalls of data-driven journalism. He argues that the tensions and their consequences will only grow more difficult and that journalists need to be more conscious of ethics than ever in this new environment of access to and distribution of data.

A report from the Pew Research Journalism Project suggests 21 per cent of Facebook users and 18 per cent of Twitter users get news often from newspapers. Local TV is a news source often for 42 per cent of Facebook users and 23 per cent of Twitter users. Cable (23 and 17 per cent for Facebook and Twitter users, respectively) and radio (25 and 24 per cent) are also strong sources.

USA Today media writer Rem Rieder argues that CBS News must conduct a full, transparent inquiry into the errant 60 Minutes report last month on the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. Rieder believes the damage to the venerable program is substantial and that CBS News must move swiftly to answer many questions about its practices in this matter.

A new Pew Research Center study suggests Facebook is a common but incidental way Americans get news. Its poll found most American adults don't go to Facebook for news, but find news while on Facebook for other purposes. Only 4% said it was the most important way they get news. Still, Facebook appears to provide news to people who otherwise might not get it. Those who receive news on Facebook are highly engaged users and news consumption doesn't appear to displace their other Facebook activities.

Glenn Greenwald, in his first extensive interview since announcing his departure from The Guardian for a new journalism venture financed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, argues that a revolution is taking place in how news organizations cover government and institutions. Secrets will not be viable if they involve activities that run counter to the consciences of any of the extensive number of people with access to the data. That, in turn, will alter the power dynamic. Journalism will find opportunities in this context. Newsweek, now an online-only organization, reports on his views from Brazil.

The Columbia Journalism Review decided to examine the coverage of surveillance in four major U.S. newspapers (The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times) following recent revelations, and it found a "remarkable" result: The media tilted to the right on the issue. The survey examined the use of certain key words that indicate a pro- or anti-surveillance stance: terrorism and surveillance on the one side, liberty and privacy on the other. While the stance was not overt, it suggests media remain reluctant to appear soft on terror, the Review concludes.

The debate continues on whether journalists need to learn how to write code and whether journalism schools should teach them how. In recent days journalist Olga Khazan sparked the debate by suggesting her time would be better spent learning how to report well instead of code badly. But Meranda Adams, writing for 10000 Words, argues (and uses data-wise journalist and professor Robert Hernandez to support her) that at the very least a modern journalist should know some basics about HTML and CSS or what they're discussing when they pitch the idea of a data project.

New data regulations proposed by the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament are raising concerns by publishers and journalists. The regulations aim to strengthen personal privacy, but they also require that journalists prove to administrators of the regulations there is a legitimate interest in obtaining materials and to gain consent of those mentioned in articles or featured in photos to use the material. The regulations also permit citizens the right to erase material from the Web, a matter bound to engender media opposition. The Columbia Journalism Review notes the regulations now move to member countries to deal with specific wording before a vote is held some time next year.

A new British poll suggests the public is much more optimistic than the craft of journalism is about the future of investigative journalism. The YouGov poll indicates about 29 per cent of the public was not optimistic about the survival of investigative work, while 62 per cent of journalists were. The Guardian reports the findings were released at a London panel on journalism where editors expressed concerns about state power and access to information.

Facebook has reversed its stance for the second time and removed from its network a violent video that featured a beheading. The social network had argued a day earlier that the video should remain because it did not wish to impinge on free expression. Initially when the video surfaced in May it had been taken down. AllThingsDigital reports that Facebook finally decided this wasn't the test case to determine where to draw the line.

Rachel McAthy, writing for journalism.co.uk, examines the effort by Associated Press to develop safety-conscious guidelines for handling user-generated content emanating from the world's danger zones. They counsel perspective and caution in acquiring and commissioning content and extend the agency's earlier guidelines on social media.

Frédéric Filloux, in his latest Monday Note, looks at the rapid and exciting growth in data journalism. He took in last week's Global Editors Network conference and the awards to data-based projects. He concludes that the field is expanding beyond economic and social topics and that tools are becoming much more accessible for users.

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency employee who has leaked secrets about government surveillance, has issued a statement through WikiLeaks. In it he argues that the Obama administration is attempting to frighten those who demand a constitutional government. Snowden remains stateless and is attempting to identify countries where he can gain asylum.

Sean Parker, the former Napster chief and Facebook president, found himself the object of significant journalism criticism a few weeks ago. For his wedding. In the redwood forest of California. He says the Internet journalism portrayed him as it would a "genocidal dictator." For TechCrunch, Parker tries to set the record clear about the wedding, its environmental impact, and the lessons learned about the journalism that greeted it.

Matt Taibbi, writing for Rolling Stone, argues that all journalism is advocacy. He notes the recent skirmish about whether there is an agenda behind leaks about U.S. government surveillance secrets, and says it's a myth to purport that objectivity is anything more than a pursuit. "Obviously, journalists can strive to be balanced and objective, but that's all it is, striving. Try as hard as you want, a point of view will come forward in your story."

Ciara Bryne and Gabe Stein, writing for FastCo. Labs, look at the storytelling approach of Circa. It uses objects, data, images, quotes and other "atomic" elements to build, rebuild and reuse content. They interview Circa chief David Cohn about the innovative techniques to develop object-oriented news.